I found a pristine condition Nikkor 105mm Macro 2.8G for $650 in a pawn shop in Maui and while I made it back home, I won an auction on ebay for a new Nikkor 14-24 2.8G Ultra Wide for $1550; which is a steal considering the new price tag of 2k.

Considering that I will be getting $500 for my old Nikkor 105mm 2.8D and I got $675 for my Nikkor DX 12-24mm 4G, it makes a good upgrade for a decent price.

Not sure there's any optical gains to have to upgrade from the D version to the G, but the speed of the autofocus alone is worth the $150 its gonna cost me to upgrade. And the 14-24 is day and night compared to the 12-24 DX lens so i'm not worried here.

My next purchase was supposed to be a 300mm that will fit my 2X teleconverter, but finding those kick ass deals forced me to postpone this purchase.

That was mistake number two. I brought the 14, which is a fine lens *if* you hit the MF right. I should have played it safe and left the 14 at home and brought the 10-22, which nails focus every time.

hey mark, i remember you have the roki 8mm. i´m thinking of getting the samyang 8mm for the Fuji, i believe they are the same. are you hapy with it? did you find yourself using it or is the fisheye too limiting? i´m thinking of using it basically for landscapes and cars. the thing is fuji is coming out with a 14mm but i already got the 18mm and 14mm is not wide enough. when i had the Tokina i was using it at 11mm 90% of the time..
anw, just want to hear your opinion, other may chime in..

Yes, I have the 8mm. It's a great landscape lens. You can pretty much eliminate the distortion by keeping the lens level. But the slightest movement up or down bends your horizon pretty drastically. In portrait orientation you get things very close in focus and things far away also tack sharp. But again, the lens needs to be level. The great thing about the Roki 8mm is that you set it to f8, set the focus just shy of infinity, and everything in your field of view is in focus.

hey mark, i remember you have the roki 8mm. iÂ´m thinking of getting the samyang 8mm for the Fuji, i believe they are the same. are you hapy with it? did you find yourself using it or is the fisheye too limiting? iÂ´m thinking of using it basically for landscapes and cars. the thing is fuji is coming out with a 14mm but i already got the 18mm and 14mm is not wide enough. when i had the Tokina i was using it at 11mm 90% of the time..
anw, just want to hear your opinion, other may chime in..